So the guys at Bethesda let it slip a few months ago that Elder Scrolls V was in the works for 2010, and a friend said he read a possible release in 2009... I'm looking for the article, but I'm friggin' STOKED about a new Elder Scrolls game coming out in the next 12-18 months!!!

I think they can learn a lot with the successes and failures of their previous landmark releases like Morrowind, Oblivion and Fallout 3 and make ESV an absolute KICK ASS game!

What happens in Vegas stays in New Vegas, the setting of a brand new standalone Fallout 3 game announced this side of the pond (London) earlier today. It's not by Bethesda, but rather Obsidian Entertainment, whose members have been involved in some of the best computer RPGs ever (Planescape: Torment, the first two Fallout games) as well as some of the most mediocre (Knights of the Old Republic 2, Neverwinter Nights 2). That's all we know at the moment, so let me change the topic slightly by speculating shamelessly.

Oblivion's been out for years now, Fallout 3's already seen two downloadable content packs with a third on the horizon, and so I'd wager Bethesda's on the verge of saying something (perhaps at E3 2009?) about their fifth The Elders Scrolls romp. That's V as in five, not "vee" as in vermicelli. Or Vicodin.

Don't think they've been working on a fifth installment for awhile now? They have. It's not just that Bethesda's Paul Oughton spilled the beans last October when he said of the company's development lineup "At the moment we've got Fallout 3 for this year and potentially there's a new Elder Scrolls title in 2010." "Potentially" means it's advanced well past a twinkle in Bethesda's eye.

The Elder Scrolls V? Or my recent trip to Scotland?

That said, I recently pulled Oblivion off the shelf for another go. You know, see how it stacks up, three years old. Hindsight's tetchy-tetchy, and lest those of you unfamiliar with my past thoughts on the game assume I'm some kind of RPG-killjoy, know that my original review for Computer Gaming World was a full five-star editor's choice cascade of superlatives.

On to the list:

1. Don't recycle your voice actors. Okay, I get that Oblivion's a Really Big Game and you probably blew two-thirds of your budget snagging Patrick Stewart and Sean Bean and Lynda Carter, but stellar as the less-well-known acting talent is here, modulating accents and vocal timbres doesn't scrub out the distinctly evil-overlord-shtick guys like Craig Sechler have going on (who does this sound like?). Given the choice between "voiceless text" and "recycled voice acting" audio? I'll take text plus my own imagination, please.

2. Don't make the world map one-third the total screen size. Let's see an honest-to-goodness full-screen map. Or at least a full-screen map option. You know, like windows in Windows? Minimize-maximize? It's bad enough that the PC version was a straight port of the console's squashed tabulation interface, but even on a TV screen with a gamepad, it was like trying to read a map looking through the slit in a medieval helmet. Give us a map that's worthy of the game world, and if you don't mind, make the zoom level continuous ala GPG's Supreme Commander. Or if that's too tall an order, at least more granular zoom levels, please.

3. Don't keep the same first-person combat engine. Lay Fallout 3's optional pause-based limb-targeting combat on us. Some of us like to plot our battles in lieu of crash-'n-smash brawling, especially seeing as scuffling takes the lion's share of game time in these games. I'm a lowly level 15 Nightblade currently, and with 39 days under my belt (game days, that is) I've slaughtered over 300 creatures, mostly by wading in and pulling the trigger mindlessly. Add a little more tactical depth than just strafe-slashing or spell-casting. Tailor the game to third-person with a first-person option (instead of the current reverse emphasis) and reboot the combat system Dynasty Warriors style. Medieval hand-to-hand in first-person's kind of bland after you've whack-block-whacked your thousandth foozle. Third-person works infinitely better if you want a truly kaleidoscopic (and thereby more gripping) combat engine.

4. Abolish quest personas garrisoned at the abyss end of random generic dungeons stocked with level-iterative hell-spawn. I'm presently hacking and slashing my way through Deranged Zombie Numbers 15 and 16 as I spelunk toward the bottom digs of a cave-maze to chat up some Mage's Guild exile who's decided — like every other cave-dwelling nutjob — that cohabitation with a bunch of brainless corpses is all de groovy. If you've seen one dungeon in Oblivion, you've seen...well, if not every last one of them, certainly the lot. If we're stuck exploring barely iterative gloomy blue-gray grottos and lairs, at least make the inhabitants' motivations plausible so we're not unearthing blithe Leave it to Beaver crackpots living la vida mundane in Dante's eighth or ninth circles.

5. Get the camera out of NPC faces. Take advantage of the medium's low-cost option to be anywhere, anytime, for more dramatic storytelling. Anyone else weary of Oblivion and Fallout 3's zoom-on-face approach during conversations? Yeah, sure, Argonians look rad enough with their mottled rainbow scales and slit-style pupils, but the head-on jam sessions coupled with the repetitious voice acting and off-the-shelf facial ticks wear out their welcome early on. Get the camera moving and grooving. Throw in some signature directorial motifs for important talking heads. Meet-and-greets with characters like Jauffre and Martin ought to stand apart from random chitchat with some grumpy Orc kvetching about Kvatch outside a tent in Anywheresville. Start with the 180 degree rule...then by all means smash it to pieces.

What I hate about all Bethesda games is that you either reach the highest possible level half way through the game (Fallout 3) or you get all the best possible gear half way through the game (Oblivion). WTF kind of weak sauce shit is that? They need to create a whole new looting/crafting system and rework the leveling process because they're ruining their RPG's this way. Learn from Blizzard on how to make a proper looting system and from Bioware on how to level up properly.

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ZootedGranny:

"That's the reason my FFL team name is TrentGreenLeadBlock. When you see this mother****er coming around the corner on a block, put your children to bed and batten down the hatch on your girl's snatch, because the same power that destroys defenders can scar the minds of the youth and simultaneously impregnate any woman within sight, live or on television."

What I hate about all Bethesda games is that you either reach the highest possible level half way through the game (Fallout 3) or you get all the best possible gear half way through the game (Oblivion). WTF kind of weak sauce shit is that? They need to create a whole new looting/crafting system and rework the leveling process because they're ruining their RPG's this way. Learn from Blizzard on how to make a proper looting system and from Bioware on how to level up properly.

I read on some site there's rumor they're adding the ability to craft your own weapons and armor... that would be cool.

What I hate about all Bethesda games is that you either reach the highest possible level half way through the game (Fallout 3) or you get all the best possible gear half way through the game (Oblivion). WTF kind of weak sauce shit is that? They need to create a whole new looting/crafting system and rework the leveling process because they're ruining their RPG's this way. Learn from Blizzard on how to make a proper looting system and from Bioware on how to level up properly.

my main beef with the game was the leveling system and the repetiveness of some things. But I never played morrowind, I should probably go pick it up but I have too many games as it is.

I read on some site there's rumor they're adding the ability to craft your own weapons and armor... that would be cool.

Yeah, I hope they improve their previous versions of it. It just kills an RPG for me when the character advancement completely stops 60% through the game.

__________________
ZootedGranny:

"That's the reason my FFL team name is TrentGreenLeadBlock. When you see this mother****er coming around the corner on a block, put your children to bed and batten down the hatch on your girl's snatch, because the same power that destroys defenders can scar the minds of the youth and simultaneously impregnate any woman within sight, live or on television."

I get to the point where my character has all his skills maxed out and can kill everybody, and then I get bored. But after a couple of times through I don't want to go through the grief of starting a new character. Sort of a Catch 22.

Sucks that all the cool new games won't hit until fall. I'm definitely in a rut right now.